Did governor abuse power to call special session?

BREAKOUT below main bar: List of special sessions Blagojevich has called

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So far this year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has called 16 special sessions of the legislature. That number is exceeded only by the 17 he called during a similar state budget dispute in 2004.

All together, they comprise nearly half of the 67 special sessions called since the state's 1970 constitution was enacted.

"It's my intention to call special sessions every single day, without fail, seven days a week until we get a budget that funds education and provides health care to families," Blagojevich said on June 29, two days before the state's fiscal year ended.

Lawmakers had missed their May 31 adjournment deadline in an impasse over whether to fund Blagojevich's demands for universal health care and dramatic increases in education spending. Budget negotiations eventually broke down.

"And so this is the beginning of a whole series of special sessions that I will be calling to take care of unfinished business," Blagojevich said on July 9. "And if some legislative leaders don't want to call these bills for a vote on their own, we'll call special sessions and make them call these bills for a vote."

"I don't think anyone expected that special sessions would be used as a harassment tool by a governor," said Charles Wheeler III, who covered the 1970 Constitutional Convention as a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.

"I think that's abusive of the privilege," said Wheeler, who now is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The state constitution gives governors, along with legislative leaders, the right to call special sessions "by a proclamation stating the purpose of the session; and only business encompassed by such purpose, together with any impeachments or confirmation of appointments shall be transacted."

Dawn Clark Netsch, a former Democratic state comptroller and legislator, was a delegate at the 1970 Constitutional Convention, although she was not on the committee considering special sessions.

"It's always been thought to be primarily something to take care of emergencies," Netsch said. "I don't think there's any question that it wasn't intended to be a kind of games-playing thing."

Rebecca Rausch, a spokeswoman for Blagojevich, said the 1870 constitution stated that the governor could call special sessions “on extraordinary occasions,” but the current constitution specifically omits that phrase. Nevertheless, she said in an e-mail, “a lack of a state budget is certainly an emergency.”

“The bottom line,” Rausch said, “is the governor exercised his authority to call special sessions to address issues pertaining to the budget, or lack of a budget. … This was all business left unfinished by the General Assembly.”

Since 1970, special sessions of the legislature have been called on myriad matters, including taxes; education funding; lawsuit reforms; executive, legislative and judicial pay; elections law; drug and alcohol abuse legislation; corrections; and political issues, as well as budgetary concerns.

All but one of the special sessions Blagojevich has called during his five years in office have dealt at least tangentially with budget issues. On July 11, he called a special session to deal with legislation to ban the sale or possession of ammunition clips containing 10 or more rounds. The House sponsor of Senate Bill 1007 declined to call it for a vote, however, saying he didn't have the support needed to pass it.

As the number of special sessions the Democratic governor called grew over the summer, the number of legislators showing up for them decreased. During the last several sessions, neither the House nor the Senate could muster a quorum.

"That's really unfortunate," said Netsch, now professor emeritus at Northwestern University law school, "because when the governor calls a special session, it's for something that's very important -- at least that's the operating premise -- and legislators should make every effort to be there. I think the fact that it went that way shows that it's just not working the way it was intended."

Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, also squared off over who has the authority to set the time of a special session. Blagojevich's office said it would explore legal options, but so far, nothing more has occurred.

On Aug. 10, after the House had passed a budget and sent it to the governor, Madigan advised House members to stay home until further notice, even though the governor had called special sessions for the next two days.

“We've sent the governor a 12-month budget. We've done our job," Madigan said. "My advice to all members would be, 'Don't come to Springfield.'”

“Speaker Madigan's instruction to members not to come in to special session isn't a theoretical abuse of constitutional authority, it is direct,” Rausch said.

A handbook prepared for delegates to the 1970 convention observed that, by employing the power to call special sessions, "a governor could keep the legislature in session indefinitely." But the handbook cautioned against constraining that authority, saying that "an attempt to limit possible but unlikely abuse will inevitably restrict probable and proper action."

"I think the point that these commentators made," said Wheeler, who found the references in the handbook, "was that you have to have a certain level of trust in your elected officials that they will behave in a responsible manner and not do stuff out of pettiness or vindictiveness or just posturing for the media."

Dana Heupel can be reached at 788-1518 or dana.heupel@sj-r.com.

BLAGOJEVICH’S SPECIAL SESSIONS

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has called 33 special sessions since he took office. Below are the dates and topics.